4 Firebombs Hit Muslim Targets in NYC

Attacks probed as anti-Muslim crimes: police
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2012 10:26 AM CST
Firebombs Hit Queens Houses, Imam Al-Khoei Foundation Islamic Center
The NYPD is investigating four firebombing attacks last night in Queens.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Four homemade firebombs went off in New York last night in what police believe to be anti-Muslim hate crimes. No one was hurt. Three of the Queens attacks used molotov cocktails made using Starbucks bottles; targets included a bodega, two houses, and a major Islamic center, the New York Times reports. One of the houses caught fire; it took 60 firefighters 40 minutes to control the blaze.

The bodega attack may have come from a bomb thrown inside the store, police said. A glass Starbucks bottle was later hurled at the door of the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation Islamic center, which contains one of New York's leading Shiite mosques. The final attack saw a pair of bottles thrown at a house, but the flames didn't last long. The person who alerted authorities said a vehicle had driven by the house as the bottles were launched. The attacks follow a string of arson incidents in Los Angeles. (More New York City stories.)

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